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Afghanistan Mid-Year Report 2015: Protection of Civilians In AFGHANISTAN MIDYEAR REPORT 2015 PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS IN ARMED CONFLICT © 2015/Reuters United Nations Assistance Mission United Nations Office of the High in Afghanistan Commissioner for Human Rights Kabul, Afghanistan August 2015 Source: UNAMA GIS January 2012 AFGHANISTAN MIDYEAR REPORT 2015 PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS IN ARMED CONFLICT United Nations Assistance Mission in United Nations Office of the High Afghanistan Commissioner for Human Rights Kabul, Afghanistan August 2015 Photo on Front Cover © 2015/Reuters. A man assists an injured child following a suicide attack launched by Anti-Government Elements on 18 April 2015, in Jalalabad city, Nangarhar province, which caused 158 civilian casualties (32 deaths and 126 injured, including five children). Photo taken on 18 April 2015. UNAMA documented a 78 per cent increase in civilian casualties attributed to Anti-Government Elements from complex and suicide attacks in the first half of 2015. "The cold statistics of civilian casualties do not adequately capture the horror of violence in Afghanistan, the torn bodies of children, mothers and daughters, sons and fathers. The statistics in this report do not reveal the grieving families and the loss of shocked communities of ordinary Afghans. These are the real consequences of the conflict in Afghanistan.” Nicholas Haysom, United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary- General in Afghanistan, Kabul, August 2015. “This is a devastating report, which lays bare the heart-rending, prolonged suffering of civilians in Afghanistan, who continue to bear the brunt of the armed conflict and live in insecurity and uncertainty over whether a trip to a bank, a tailoring class, to a court room or a wedding party, may be their last. Impunity for serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law has been reigning for too long in Afghanistan, and fuelling the cycle of violence. There need to be urgent, concrete steps towards accountability, to break this venomous cycle." Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, August 2015. Mandate This midyear report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Afghanistan for 2015 was prepared by the Human Rights Unit of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and covers the period from 1 January to 30 June 2015. The report is prepared pursuant to UNAMA mandate under United Nations Security Council resolution 2210 (2015) “to monitor the situation of civilians, to coordinate efforts to ensure their protection, to promote accountability, and to assist in the full implementation of the fundamental freedoms and human rights provisions of the Afghan Constitution and international treaties to which Afghanistan is a State party, in particular those regarding the full enjoyment by women of their human rights.” Security Council resolution 2210 (2015) recognizes the importance of ongoing monitoring and reporting to the Security Council on the situation of civilians in the armed conflict, particularly on civilian casualties. UNAMA undertakes a range of activities aimed at minimizing the impact of the armed conflict on civilians including: independent and impartial monitoring of incidents involving loss of life or injury to civilians; advocacy to strengthen protection of civilians affected by the armed conflict; and initiatives to promote compliance with international humanitarian and human rights law, and the Constitution and laws of Afghanistan among all parties to the conflict. This report has been reviewed and received technical input from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Table of Contents Methodology i Executive Summary 1 Recommendations 12 I. Human Rights Protection in Conflict Areas 16 Women and the Armed Conflict 16 Children and Armed Conflict 19 Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) 20 Conflict-Related Displacement of Civilians: Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) 24 Cross-Border Engagement 25 II. Ground Engagements between Parties to the Conflict: Civilians Caught in Crossfire 26 Civilian Casualties from Ground Engagements: Main Trends in 2015 26 Increasing Women and Child Casualties from Ground Engagements 28 Regional Breakdown of Civilian Casualties from Ground Engagements: 2009 through 2015 29 Afghan National Security Forces: Civilian Casualties from Ground Engagements 31 Anti-Government Elements: Civilian Casualties from Ground Engagements32 Ground fighting between Anti-Government Elements and Pro-Government Forces where attribution to a specific party was not possible 34 Mortar and Rocket Attacks in Civilian-Populated Areas 35 III. Anti-Government Elements and Protection of Civilians 40 Tactics and Incident Types Causing the Most Harm to Civilians 40 Incidents Claimed by the Taliban which Resulted in Civilian Casualties 42 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) 42 Suicide and Complex Attacks 49 War Crime of Murder: Targeted Killings of Civilians 52 Deliberate Targeting of Civilians and Civilian Locations 54 Parallel Justice Structures: Executions, Amputations, Beatings and other Criminal Acts 58 Abductions of Civilians by Anti-Government Elements 59 Taliban Claims of Responsibility for Attacks Impacting Civilians 63 IV. Pro-Government Forces and Protection of Civilians 68 Recommendation for the Development of a National Policy on Civilian Casualty Mitigation 69 Afghan Local Police 69 Oversight and Accountability of ALP 71 Pro-Government Armed Groups: Civilian Casualties, Human Rights Abuses and Impunity 73 Lack of Accountability for Human Rights Abuses by Pro-Government Armed Groups 76 Aerial Operations 77 V. Legal Framework 81 Legal Responsibilities of Parties to the Armed Conflict 81 VI. Glossary 86 Annex 1: Attacks Claimed by the Taliban: Breakdown by Target Type 94 Annex 2: Table of Taliban Allegations of “War Crimes” by Verification Status and Attribution 95 Afghanistan Mid-Year Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict: 2015 Methodology UNAMA investigates reports of civilian casualties by conducting on-site investigations, wherever possible, and consulting a broad range of sources and types of information that are evaluated for their credibility and reliability. In undertaking investigation and analysis of each incident, UNAMA exercises due diligence to corroborate and cross- check information from as wide a range of sources as possible including accounts of witnesses, victims and directly-affected persons, military actors (including the Government of Afghanistan, Anti-Government Elements, and International Military Forces), local village/district and provincial authorities, religious and community leaders, and other interlocutors. Information is obtained through direct site visits, physical examination of items and evidence gathered at the location of incidents, visits to hospitals and medical facilities, still and video images, reports of the United Nations Department of Safety and Security and other United Nations entities, secondary source accounts and information gathered by NGOs and other third parties. For verification of each incident involving a civilian casualty, UNAMA requires at least three types of sources, i.e., victim, witness, medical practitioner, local authorities, confirmation by party to the conflict, community leader or other sources. Wherever possible, investigations are based on the primary accounts of victims and/or witnesses of the incident and on-site investigations. On some occasions, primarily due to security- related constraints affecting access, this form of investigation is not possible. In such instances, UNAMA relies on a range of techniques to gain information through reliable networks, again through as wide a range of sources as possible that are evaluated for credibility and reliability. Where UNAMA is not satisfied with information concerning an incident, it will not be reported. In some instances, investigations may take several weeks before conclusions can be drawn. This may mean that conclusions on civilian casualties from an incident may be revised as more information becomes available and is incorporated into the analysis. Where information is unclear, conclusions will not be drawn until more satisfactory evidence is obtained, or the case will be closed without conclusion and will not be included in the statistical reporting. In some incidents, the civilian status of the reported victims cannot be conclusively established or is disputed. In such cases, UNAMA is guided by the applicable norms of international humanitarian law and does not presume fighting-age males are either civilians or fighters. Rather, such claims are assessed on the facts available on the incident in question. If the status of one or more victim(s) remains uncertain, their death or injury is not included in the overall number of civilian casualties. UNAMA established an electronic database in 2009 to support its analysis and reporting on protection of civilians in armed conflict. The database is designed to facilitate the systematic, uniform and effective collection and analysis of information, i Afghanistan Mid-Year Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict: 2015 including disaggregation by age, gender, perpetrator, tactic, weapon, and other categories. As multiple parties are engaged in the conflict, UNAMA makes every effort to identify as precisely as possible the party responsible for a particular civilian casualty, for example, Taliban or Afghan National Army. Due to limitations associated with the operating environment, such as
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